KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 23 — Malaysia’s Leading Index (LI) annual performance increased 3.6 per cent to 116.2 points in October 2025, from 112.2 in the previous corresponding month, signalling optimistic economic momentum ahead of 2026, said the Malaysian Statistics Department (DOSM).
Chief Statistician Datuk Seri Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the positive performance was underpinned by strong double-digit growth in three LI components: the number of housing units approved, which grew 51.2 per cent, real imports of other basic precious and other non-ferrous metals (39.2 per cent), and real imports of semiconductors (32.4 per cent).
“Concurrently, the monthly performance of the LI rebounded to 2.6 per cent in October 2025 after registering declines for two consecutive months, supported by the improved performance of the real imports of other basic precious and other non-ferrous metals, which grew 1.8 per cent.
“This positive development reflects stronger economic momentum towards 2026,” he said in a statement today, titled 'Malaysian Economic Indicators: Leading, Coincident & Lagging Indices October 2025'.
The LI provides an early indication of turning points in the business cycle and the near-term direction of the economy.
Meanwhile, in line with the notable improvement in the LI’s performance, the smoothed long-term trend of the LI surpassed 100.0 points in October 2025.
“Based on this scenario, the economic outlook is expected to be more optimistic in the future, supported by encouraging economic activities, particularly in imports of intermediate goods, alongside promising performance across key economic sectors, namely the services and manufacturing sectors,” the DOSM said.
In assessing the current economic situation, the Coincident Index (CI) recorded encouraging annual growth of 2.7 per cent, rising to 129.9 points from 126.5 points in the same period last year.
Meanwhile, it noted a significant 15.3 per cent increase in real contributions to the Employees Provident Fund (EPF), reflecting stronger employee income flows and continuity in employment opportunities.
“On a monthly basis, the CI also posted positive growth of 0.6 per cent, primarily driven by increases in the real salaries and wages in manufacturing and real contributions to the EPF, which rose by 0.2 per cent each,” the DOSM said.
For the first time, Malaysia ranked first globally in the biennial Open Data Inventory (ODIN) 2024/25 report released by Open Data Watch (ODW), surpassing 197 other countries. The achievement marks a significant leap from its 67th position in the ODIN 2022/23 assessment.
OpenDOSM NextGen is a medium that provides data catalogues and visualisations to facilitate users’ analysis and can be accessed at https://open.dosm.gov.my.
